Head spinning... quick-E-fan question

[Mr Clickety Clackety]

Posted in another forum too...

Been searching for a while and I'm tired of the arguments.

Here's my question. I see there are some (what look like) serious diesel fans offered by flex a lite. Ranging from $600 and up with 6000+CFM Raiting . Are these gtg for the Ole IDI? Or does flex-a-lite suck-a-lot?
I have the money at the moment and if these fans are far superior in performance and reliability then don't need a cheap alternative

 

[austin92]

Man, I've drove my truck with out a fan for a week now with no fan at all and haven't seen over 180*. There's 2 on eBay, one for 125+18$ shipping and the other is 150$. Farmerfrank on here was offering me one until I got one from my grandfather. When I had a good fan and a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator I wouldn't see over 215*. I can't give any good advice towards a fancy aftermarket fan other than maybe fuel economy which I have no personal experience with. I would stay stock mechanical or convert to electric


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[Shawn MacAnanny]

I used efans before and monitored pre turbo, post turbo and post intercooler temps. I found the factory clutch fan works better but that the 4 efans were adequate. In traffic idling with AC on i could see coolant temp get over 210 as high as 220 where as with a clutch fan it rarely got above 220. I have the set with shroud i made i removed from my truck you could have for $50 plus shipping if you wanted to try efans out before you dropped $600. I think the fans i have were rated at 1700cfm each or so

 

[franklin2]

Man, I've drove my truck with out a fan for a week now with no fan at all and haven't seen over 180*. There's 2 on eBay, one for 125+18$ shipping and the other is 150$. Farmerfrank on here was offering me one until I got one from my grandfather. When I had a good fan and a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator I wouldn't see over 215*. I can't give any good advice towards a fancy aftermarket fan other than maybe fuel economy which I have no personal experience with. I would stay stock mechanical or convert to electric


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If you are going to pay $600 for some electric fans, you would think they would be big enough. Some people use some of Ford's factory fans with success also. I used two of those cheap 16 inch fans you get in the parts store and they would not cool my truck.

Yes, you can putt putt around with no fan and it will stay cool. We are talking about towing in 90 degree weather, 8000 +lbs up hills and mountains in 3rd and 2nd gear(no turbo on mine) for an hour or so. That's when you need that huge factory mechanical fan locked up and turning, or probably $600 worth of electric fans.

I will warn you, if you have electric fans large enough to do the job, your stock alternator is not going to be big enough. It was barely big enough to keep my cheap fans running with the A/C going and the blower fan on high and the headlights on at night. You will need to upgrade your elect system if you are going to run large fans that are big enough to do the job.

 

[IDIoit]

where are they made? china?
if youre gonna spend the coin on a solid cooling system, give AFCO a call.
great company and customer service is 100%

 

[Mr Clickety Clackety]

where are they made? china?
if youre gonna spend the coin on a solid cooling system, give AFCO a call.
great company and customer service is 100%

Thanks for the advice. if they are made in China that crap ain't touching my truck.
I'll check em out thanks.

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

Before shelling out big bucks like that,you should just try a $50 salvage yard,dual windstar setup like I'm using.If it's good enough,then you save $550.
I'v also found that a massive way to reduce coolant temps in these trucks,is to add more oil cooling (w/220F t-stat so it can't over cool).

 

[Mr Clickety Clackety]

Before shelling out big bucks like that,you should just try a $50 salvage yard,dual windstar setup like I'm using.If it's good enough,then you save $550.
I'v also found that a massive way to reduce coolant temps in these trucks,is to add more oil cooling (w/220F t-stat so it can't over cool).

Thats a very good idea. Any advice on a good/simple oil cooler add on?

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

Good,yes.Simple,no.

aux oil cooler install

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

Here's the one i made i was offering, 4 12 inch fans in a diamond plate shroud i made that bolts right into the factory shroud locaiton. I had the top fnas come on first and the bottoms ones second. I used two thermostats

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[FORDF250HDXLT]

Your blocking off so much of your radiator with that setup though Shawn.Those will be called on far more often than if you mounted them in the open/inside a large open shroud instead.

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

If i opened that shroud, the fans short cycle and pull in air from behind the shroud and engine bay. Sealing them off forces the fans to pull the full length and flow rate through radiator cores. This is more important at idle and city driving then at highway driving when there would be enough air forcing itself through the radiator and fan openings. At least thats the reason i built it that way

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

I have seen the one with the flaps and didnt like the design, i think maximum flow directed through radiator core is key. Even AFCO uses that design and many others

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AFCO-Racing...ash=item4d5468f65c:g:w14AAOSwOgdYpcMr&vxp=mtr


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Big-Block-M...ash=item1c76d2d829:g:TtoAAOSwUKxYdTlm&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mishimoto-7...ash=item4d3d5a592b:g:QHkAAOSwh6xTttCS&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Big-Block-P...ash=item1a21116893:g:xnwAAOSwEzxYbvBo&vxp=mtr

 

[FORDF250HDXLT]

The thing is though,sitting under no load at idle is when it's super easy to cool.You would be better off with a wide open/no fan at all under load,pulling a grade.At speed,under a load,your blocking off more airflow that you could get than with those on high blocking most of your radiator.

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

The radiator core on an OBS measures something like 24x31 so 744 square inches. a 12 inch fan is 6x6 = 36x 3.14 so 113 sq inches per fan so 452 square inches open for the fans so roughly 41% of the radiator is obstructed by the radiator shroud. I think the factory fan is 21 inches? Lets call it 22 inches for the opening of the fan shroud so 11x11 = 121 x3.14 is 380 square inches opening of the radiator fan shroud. Could go measure it but im being lazy if its a 24 inch opening thats exactly 452 square inches, the same as the 4 12 inch fans. So in your reasoning it would be ideal to run no fan shroud at all then, right?